The Ultimate List of 41 Free Project Management Templates

The Ultimate List of 41 Free Project Management Templates

Are you looking to save time and improve consistency across projects? A good set of project management templates will make your work easier and more efficient. This article shares 41 such templates covering all of the following:

How to Use Project Management Templates?

Unsurprisingly, most PM templates are made in MS Excel. A few text-heavy ones use MS Word. To use these templates, simply download them from the links below. Direct file links are marked specifically. In some cases, you will have to give up your email address in exchange for the file (marked as “Email/Registration required”).

Once downloaded, edit them with your own details and export in your chosen format.

If you don’t have Excel or Word, you can use LibreOffice as an open-source alternative.

Alternatively, upload the file to your Google MyDrive account.

Google will convert the file and you can open it in Google Sheets (for XLS files) or Google Docs (for .Doc files).

To make the searching process easier, I’ve organized the templates into different categories below.

Project Charter

This is an important document that outlines the scope, objectives, and stakeholders involved in the project. It documents everything the project needs and its expected outcomes.

The project charter also doubles up as a business case document. In case you need to convince stakeholders of the importance of a project, or outline the goals to your team, you will turn to the project charter.

Whether you are using one of the project charter templates below or creating one from scratch, there are a few elements you should always include:

Project title: Start with the title. Make sure it is specific enough to make identification easier. A good template to follow is this - "[Project Type] to [Project Objective] for [Project Client/Product]". For example, "Inbound Marketing Campaign to Increase Marketing Qualified Leads for Apple Corporation".

Executive summary: Include a high-level summary of the project, its purpose, and its stakeholders.

Project objectives: Explain the "why" of the purpose in greater detail. Be very specific about the outcomes you seek. It's a good idea to include specific numbers or at least a range. Don't say "increase traffic"; say "increase website traffic by 200% in 6 months".

Business objectives: Use this section to describe how the project fits into the business' broader strategic goals. For instance, if you're running a campaign to increase traffic to a website, describe how the higher traffic would help the business in achieving its goals.

Project requirements: Explain the project's requirements in terms of resources - both tangible and intangible - at a high-level.

Project scope: Use this section to answer the question: "What is the project meant to accomplish?" Focus on both long and short-term goals & objectives, but briefly.

Key deliverables: Briefly list the key deliverables at different milestones.

Project schedule: Give a high-level overview of the project's estimated schedule. You don't have to be accurate down to the day, but a broad explanation of key milestones will help.

Project budget: Give a high-level description of the project's budget. You can break this down by resource requirements if you want to go into more detail.

Besides the above, you can also include a list of project stakeholders, roles, milestones, risks, and the completion/success criteria for the project.

Keep in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive. You can expand or shrink the charter based on your own needs. For most projects, however, including the above will be enough.

Project Charter Templates

Here are a number of project charter templates based on the guidelines above:

1. CDC project charter template

It might surprise you to learn this, but the CDC offers a number of high-quality project management templates for free. They don’t look particularly good, but they have fields for all the necessary data. This project charter template also includes detailed instructions on how to use it.

Project Plan

There is no fixed "recipe" for making a project plan. You can be as detailed or superficial as you need to be. Unlike the project charter, which is meant for stakeholders on both sides of the table, the project plan is mostly to cue you and your team into the project and its goals.

Think of it as a simplified, distilled form of the project charter, but less formal.

Keep in mind that this is a living document. You can modify it as the project progresses and you learn new things. It doesn't have to be comprehensive; it just needs to tell you and your team what they need to accomplish.

Here are some things you can include in the project plan:

Project identification: Include details about the project, including its name, description, ID, client, and project manager's name.

Project dates: Identify the start and estimated end date of the project. You can also include a counter indicating the number of days left until the end date.

Progress: Mention how much of the project has been completed so far in terms of milestones accomplished.

Tasks/activities/deliverables: You can include a broad overview of key tasks, activities or deliverables, depending on the level of granularity. In complex projects, for instance, you might want to focus on deliverables, while in smaller projects, you can specify the exact tasks needed to produce said deliverables.

Task details: Include details about each task’s start and end dates, the team or person responsible for it, and the task status.

Timeline or Gantt chart: You can also include a timeline or Gantt chart showing dependencies and progress for each task.

Project plan templates

Here are a few project plan templates based on the guidelines above:

1. Task-focused project plan template

This project plan template focuses on tasks instead of deliverables or milestones. It includes a Gantt chart to visualize project progress. Use it for smaller projects with a small number of tasks and dependencies.

3. Timeline-focused project plan template

The timeline is one of the most important elements in any project plan. This template eschews a long list of tasks to focus on a few broad activities and their completion dates. Use it to keep your team on track or to make presentations to stakeholders.

4. Gantt-chart focused project plan

This template includes a detailed list of activities and tasks related to them, all visualized in the form of a Gantt chart. You can use this for nearly any project, though you might want to create separate Gantt charts for more complex projects.

5. Project timeline

How is the project coming along? Are you on track to meet your deadlines? This project timeline template will help you answer these questions. Use it to keep track of key milestones and check up on your progress.

Project Status Reports

Creating project status reports is the bread and butter of any project manager's job. You'll have to create weekly, monthly, and even daily reports to alert stakeholders about the health of the project. Creating effective reports is an art; you have to be detailed but succinct.

So what all should you include in your project status report?

For starters, make sure it has the following:

Task progress: Clearly identify all tasks that have been accomplished since the last reporting period, what you're working on currently, and what's coming up in the next reporting period.

Issues, risks and change requests:List all current issues and their status (open, closed, pending). Also list change requests and their history. Your goal should be to alert stakeholders about any issues that need their immediate attention.

Milestones & deliverable:Identify all milestones completed since the last reporting period. Also identify upcoming milestones & deliverables as well as their start/finish dates.

2. Monthly project status report template

This in-depth template from the University of Manitoba comes with clear instructions on how to use it. You get enough space to list your key accomplishments since the last month, important KPIs, and the project’s financial health. It also has a separate section to add notes and metrics for internal use.

4. Executive project status report template

Need to give a high-level summary of the project to top stakeholders? Then this template is for you. Created by the CDC, this report does away with all superficial fields to focus on key milestones, issues, and an overall project summary. Most importantly, it also includes space to make executive requests.

Work Schedules

As a project manager, one of your core responsibilities is managing your team's schedule. What task each employee has to work on, on what days, and for how many hours is essential for running a project smoothly.

Most managers turn to weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly work schedules to manage their team's activities. These schedules usually have the following components:

A title identifying the type of schedule (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.)

The scheduled date or period

The name of the employee

Work assigned to the employee

Number of hours assigned to each task on each day of the week

As far as project management documents go, work schedules are fairly straightforward. Let’s look at some templates below.

Work Schedule Templates

Here are some templates to create work schedules for your team:

1. Weekly employee work schedule

This detailed weekly work schedule template includes fields to add hourly pay rates, total pay, and daily activities for each employee. Although designed for shift workers, you can use it in an agency setting as well.

Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)

The work breakdown structure is one of the more important documents you'll create in the course of managing a project.

As we noted earlier, the work breakdown structure involves breaking down deliverables into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Thus, you might break down a bicycle into "wheels, frame, handle", and wheels into "rims, spokes, tires".

A work breakdown structure can have as many levels as necessary, but for most projects, you won't need to go beyond 4-5 levels of decomposition. If you need to use verbs to break down the deliverables further (i.e. you are describing activities), you're doing something wrong.

The deliverables at the last level of any WBS are called a "work package". A work package describes all the work necessary to create a single deliverable. A project, then, is a collection of work packages.

Creating a work breakdown structure requires a clear understanding of what a WBS actually involves. You also need to understand the project's scope, list deliverables, and determine work packages.

Work Breakdown Structure Templates

Instead of doing everything from scratch, use these templates to create a work breakdown structure for your project:

1. Tabular work breakdown structure template

This template uses the tabular format to organize deliverables into different levels. It also includes room to add notes for each deliverable. A downside is that there is no clear visual hierarchy between deliverables at different levels.

2. Flowchart work breakdown structure template

This template uses the familiar flowchart format for defining deliverables at different levels. You can add your deliverables in the spreadsheet and Excel will automatically sort them into a flowchart. Great for visually defining hierarchies.

3. Word WBS template

Need a simple WBS template without all the complexities of Excel? Then this template is for you. Made in Word, you can just edit the text to add your own deliverables. The only downside is that it only supports three levels of deliverables.

Timesheets

Another one of your responsibilities as a project manager is to track and report how your team spends its time. You'll need this not just to track productivity but also to create client reports.

An automated time tracking solution built into your project management software is ideal for this purpose. Tools like Workamajig can track what your team is doing and create detailed reports for clients.

However, in case you don't have access to a time tracking tool, you can also use timesheets and fill them up manually.

You'll want to include the following details in your timesheets:

Number of billable hours worked by task

Number of billable hours worked by client

Team member details (name, position, contact details, etc.)

Timesheet Templates

Here are a few timesheet templates for quickly logging your team's activities:

1. Weekly timesheet template by client

This template is designed to track a specific employee’s activities for the entire week. It has room to include details about the client, project, billable hours, and rate for each day.

2. Employee time tracking template

This highly customizable template can be modified to cover any reporting period. By default, it includes fields for identifying the date, project ID, task ID, hours worked, and billable rates. You can change it to cover a specific period and track weekly progress.

3. Monthly timesheet template

Need a broader monthly view of an employee’s activities? Then this monthly timesheet template is for you. Use it to track how many hours the employee spent on specific project activities on each day of the week.

Communication Plan Templates

Creating in-depth communication plans from scratch requires a lot of effort. Use these templates to make your job easier:

1. CDC communication plan template

As with most templates offered by the CDC, this one too is highly detailed with clear instructions on how to use it. It includes a section for stakeholder analysis, version control, and a communication matrix. Although not the best looking templates around, it is detailed enough for most projects.

2. Project communication plan template

This template from the MS Office library is meant for marketing teams but can be used in any agency. It includes several sections to streamline communication, including provisions for a risk management plan, change management, and team structure.

3. NASA communication plan template

This is one of the most in-depth communication plan templates online. Besides the usual sections, it includes a “stakeholder interest/power grid” to map the importance vs. interest of each stakeholder. It also includes a section to list your communication principles to ensure consistency across all messages.

4. Project communication management plan template

Created by Marc Arnecke, PMP, this highly customizable project management template can be used in nearly any project. It includes detailed plans for managing meetings, analyzing stakeholders, and developing communication principles.

Use Workamajig to keep track of all project documents, including communication plans, to streamline your agency’s operations. Learn more here.

Risk Management Plans

There are issues in every project that can impact its success. Anticipating these issues and developing strategies to tackle them is done via the risk management plan.

The risk management plan essentially documents five things:

Risks: A list of potential risks to the project and their impact on the outcome. Risks are often divided into different categories based on what they will affect - the budget, schedule, or desired goal

Risk probability: What is the probability that a risk will actually occur? Project managers usually look at historical data, industry benchmarks, and known issues to estimate the probability of each risk.

Risk impact: What is the impact of the risk on the project? Usually, you'll list the subjective impact of the risk first and assign it an objective rating on a 1-5 scale (1 = lowest impact, 5 = project derailment).

Risk priority: Based on the risk probability and impact, you can calculate its priority. A high probability, high impact risk would have top priority.

Risk response: How do you seek to mitigate the risk? The risk management plan should contain clear first response steps in case the risk actually happens.

Risk Management Plan Templates

Here are a few risk management plan templates that follow the above guidelines:

1. Detailed risk management plan template

This detailed template was created by the state of Georgia for all its internal projects. It includes sections for qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, risk mitigation, and best practices. You can also find detailed instructions on how to use it in your own projects.

2. Project risk management plan template

Created by Marc Arnecke, PMP, this flexible risk management plan template can be used in nearly any project. It includes room to explain your risk management approach, methodology, and key roles. It also includes a probability/impact matrix to quantify the importance of each risk.

3. Generic risk management plan

UTDallas’s risk management plan template is short and simple with room to document risks, their priorities, and mitigation steps. Use it in simple projects where risks are fairly straightforward and easy to identify.

Keep track of all current and previous risks encountered in projects using Workamajig

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Gantt Charts

Gantt charts, as we learned earlier, is one of the most prominent charting techniques in project management. Though nearly a century old, Gantt charts still find use across industries in projects of varying complexities.

As a project manager, you’ll use Gantt charts extensively. Anything that can be broken down into constituent tasks can be represented on a Gantt chart. Not only does this help you visualize deadlines, but it can also help you understand task dependencies.

2. Simple Gantt chart template

If you want a simple Gantt chart that can be put to use for any project quickly, this is the template for you. Available from the MS Office template library, this template is quite flexible and can be used for small and medium-sized projects.

3. Gantt project planner template

Need a Gantt chart that can also double up as a project plan? Then this is the template for you. Instead of detailed task views, this one focuses on broad activities and their timelines. Use it as a project plan or expand it to create a more detailed chart of all project tasks.

4. PowerPoint Gantt chart template

Gantt charts are not only useful for managing project activities; they can also be used to visualize the project’s progress for clients. This PowerPoint template can help you show clients and stakeholders how the project will unfold.

5. Project Gantt chart template

Need a Gantt chart template specifically designed for project managers leading complex projects? This one will help. With detailed task lists and a neutral design, this template is perfect if you have to manage a large project with a long list of activities.

6. JavaScript Gantt chart

Need a Gantt chart that doesn’t use any proprietary software and can be manipulated in the browser? Then this template is for you. Made with JavaScript, this template acts as a full-featured Gantt chart editing tool right in your browser. You can list tasks and clearly visualize their dependencies without using any additional software.

Even More Project Management Templates

Besides the above, here are a few additional templates for creating risk registers and project budget plans:

Risk Register Templates

The risk register identifies all the potential risks to the project based on current assumptions and past results. This is a living document that will be updated throughout the project as new risks surface.

Juggling dozens of templates can get pretty hard pretty quickly. A much faster way to run projects is to use project management software that can create status reports, Gantt charts, project schedules, and work breakdown structures for you automatically.

Workamajig can help you create all these reports, and more. Check it out by clicking the link below.

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About The Author

Esther, Workamajig’s current Marketing Manager, joined the team back in ‘14. She's a Jersey girl at heart with plenty of NY grit from her time across the river. Like most credentialed marketing gals, she’s always got a good cup of coffee and would love to hear from you at estherc@workamajig.com.